You may have heard this fact before; however, those of you who haven’t may be shocked to find out which animal causes the most human deaths in the world. Hint: it’s not a snake or a shark or a mountain lion or an alligator.
The past two summers, I’ve presented a series of snake-themed programs at different libraries in Virginia;
There are three very popular quotes that I love to live by:
I have gained an immense amount of knowledge here in only six short weeks of being an Outreach Extern. While the information about education ambassadors and handling is a large portion of this, I have also learned about the Center’s overall atmosphere …
There is a culture here that is hard to explain but undeniably present. The people are light-hearted, friendly, and passionate about the Center’s mission and the work they do on a daily basis. As part of the outreach team, I am working to translate this aura into words to convey the Center’s passion to the public.
We followed Dr. Monica Madera, one of the Wildlife Center's veterinary interns, during an early-spring day at the hospital.
Sometime in May of 2010, I began feeding a group of small feral kittens in my yard. They waited on my porch to eat every morning, and again before dark. I tied string to various toys and threw them into the yard, pulling it back slowly, playing with them. I couldn't touch the kittens - they would run if I got close. Months went by …
As a part of our “Where Are They Now?” series, we had an e-interview with Amber Dedrick, who was a staff wildlife rehabilitator at the Center from 2011 – 2014.
What have you done professionally since leaving the Wildlife Center?
Ask me a year ago what I thought of snakes, or even just mention the word “snake”, and I would recoil and tell you how much I hated them! I’m happy to say a lot has changed in a year; education, exposure, and a few different one-on-one experiences worked to change my deeply-rooted hatred of snakes.
Before applying for the rehabilitation externship at the Wildlife Center of Virginia, I had been working as a vet assistant in a small-animal practice. I have a background in both wildlife management and veterinary science and was looking for something new -- something that would combine these backgrounds and help me set foot in the direction of wildlife care.
I can still picture myself last summer, sitting in the education office of an aquarium in North Carolina, perusing the pictures and stories of education animals on the Wildlife Center of Virginia’s website. After my Education Intern experience at the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, I was positive that my place in this wonderful world of wildlife was in conservation education.
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